Chimuan languages

Chimuan (also Chimúan) or Yuncan (Yunga–Puruhá, Yunca–Puruhán) is a hypothetical small extinct language family of northern Peru and Ecuador in the inter-Andean valley. They are held to comprise the Mochica (Yunga), Cañari–Puruhá, and Huancavilca.¹

Chimuan is proposed to be consisted of at least three attested languages:

All languages are now extinct.

Campbell (2012) classifies Mochica and Cañari–Puruhá each as separate language families.²

Mochica was one of the major languages of pre-Columbian South America. It was documented by Fernando de la Carrera and Middendorf in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries respectively. It became extinct around 1920, although some people remembered a few words into the late 20th century. Most scholars consider Mochica a language isolate.

Cañari and Puruhá are documented with only a few words. These two languages are usually connected with Mochica. However, as their documentation level is so low, it may not be possible to confirm this association. According to Adelaar & Muysken (2004), Jijón y Caamaño's evidence of their relationship is only a single word: Mochica nech "river", Cañari necha; based on similarities with neighboring languages, he finds a Barbacoan connection more likely.

Quingnam, considered the same language as the lengua pescadora, was sometimes erroneously taken to be a dialect of Mochica, but it is effectively unattested, excepting a list of numerals discovered in 2010 thought likely to be of Quingnam or Pescadora as expected. These numerals are not, however, Mochica.

Yunca-Puruhán (Chimuan) internal classification by Mason (1950):³

Mason (1950) added Atalán to the family.

Tovar (1961),⁴ partly based on Schmidt (1926),⁵ adds Tallán (Sechura–Catacao) to Chimuan (which he calls Yunga-Puruhá). Tovar's (1961) classification below is cited from Stark (1972).⁶

Stark (1972) proposed a Maya–Yunga–Chipayan macrofamily linking Mayan with Uru–Chipaya and Yunga (Mochica).⁶